Canary’s Adam Sager Eager to Connect Home Security to Smartphones

Yesterday’s CES Unveiled New York show gave a glimpse of flashy gadgets, familiar and new, with local startup Canary chirping among them. I ran into Adam Sager, Canary’s CEO, at this preamble to January’s annual International CES. He said Canary is busy prepping for next spring’s release of its home-monitoring device. It can be hard for a startup to stand out, especially among exhibits that feature giant curved OLED televisions, yet Sager was keen to chat about Canary’s plans.

“We’re going to market with a product that has such a different view of home security,” he said. “The vast majority of people don’t need sensors all over the home.”

The forthcoming, compact Canary device will be packed with sensors and a high-definition video camera—all to let people monitor their homes through their smartphones. Alerts can be triggered by such things as motion, changes in temperature, and sounds. Friends and family can also be notified, if users desire, when something is happening at the residence.

The concise, discrete design of Canary, Sager said, streamlines home monitoring. The alternative—setting up separate types of detectors scattered around homes—he said, can overload folks with data and false alarms. “It gives them a lot of useless information,” Sager said. “People get frustrated. There’s a much simpler way.”

Backers who got in on Canary’s crowdfunding campaign will soon have a chance to see if the device lives up to this promise, as they will receive their units in May, Sager said. The wide release is expected to follow right after, he said.